Visual content for display, such as content for graphical user interfaces and video games, may be generated by a graphics processing unit (GPU). A GPU may convert two-dimensional or three-dimensional (3D) objects into a two-dimensional (2D) pixel representation that may be displayed. Converting information about 3D objects into a bit map that can be displayed is known as pixel rendering, and requires considerable memory and processing power. In the past, 3D graphics capability was available only on powerful workstations. However, now 3D graphics accelerators are commonly found in personal computers (PC), as well as in in embedded devices, such as smart phones, tablet computers, portable media players, portable video gaming consoles, and the like. Typically, embedded device have less computational power and memory capacity as compared to conventional PCs. As such, increased complexity in 3D graphics rendering techniques presents difficulties when implementing such techniques on an embedded system. Other tasks performed by GPUs include filtering tasks for image processing. Such filtering tasks are typically hardware and memory-intensive, particularly for GPUs operating in a mobile environment.